The Interuniversity Center of Integrated Systems for the Marine Environment (ISME) has been founded in 1999 with the aim of supporting research activities in the fields of marine technologies and oceanic engineering. Current members are the Universities of Genova, Salento, Pisa, Politecnica delle Marche, Cassino and Southern Lazio, Bologna, Roma La Sapienza, Calabria, Firenze.

The researchers of ISME are all active in oceanic engineering and marine technology research focusing mainly on the following research topics:

ISME benefits of the research infrastructure of the participating departments (laboratories, workshops, etc.), and has the purpose of exploiting sinergies and collaborative efforts among the participants within an agile and flexible organizational structure.